France will set its age of consent at 15 after two cases involving sex with 11-year-old girls caused public outrage, Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa said.

France's current laws allow for prosecution of those who have sex with children under 15, but rape charges required proof that the sex was forced, The Washington Post reported. Two men in two separate cases were acquitted of rape charges after French courts ruled that the 11-year-old girls the men, ages 30 and 28, allegedly had sex with were not physically forced to have sex. Instead, the men were charged with sexual abuse of a minor, a lesser charge.

Some had proposed that the age of consent be set at 13, the Post reported. Different European nations have different ages of consent, with the UK, Belgium, Spain and Russia saying 16, while Germany, Italy and Hungary have it set at 14, Newsweek reported. In the U.S., the age of consent varies by state but is between 16 and 18 in all states.

Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa announced the law change and said that it would be presented to the Council of Ministers on March 21, CNN reported. Shiappa and French president Emanuel Macron had been considering the change since October 2017.

“We want to fix an age in the law below which it's always forbidden to have sex with children, with young girls. Below which it's always considered as a rape,” Schiappa said, CNN reported.